American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for July 2005 (second issue)
...or the disorder has improved greatly and predicted survival rates have increased from an average age of 25 in 1985 to over age 33 in 2005. Since there has been an increase in survival, researchers have also been considering other health issues unique to the adult CF population. One issue is bone health becau...Mouse studies of oseltamivir show promise against H5N1 influenza virus
... commercially as Tamiflu, dramatically boosted the survival rate of infected mice. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), funded this research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. Results of the study are now avai...Other highlights in the July 20 JNCI
...the opposite testicle and a high rate of long term survival supports the current U.S. approach of not performi... (two cancers diagnosed separately)--and long-term survival rates among men diagnosed with the disease, Sophie D. Foss, M.D., of the Norwegian Radium Hospital i...Study questions mortality benefit of breast cancer screening in community settings
...ing treatments for breast cancer may have improved survival rates regardless of screening history, the authors point out. In an accompanying editorial, Russell Harris, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, suggests that issues that may reduce the effectiveness of formal screenings in...Bone-protecting drugs reduce pain and fractures in metastatic breast cancer
... While the new treatment approach does not improve survival rates, it can minimize disabling fractures, spinal cord compression and pain. The bone-protecting medications are already in common used among patients with osteoporosis and multiple myeloma, a cancer that affects bone marrow. The skeleton is the mos...Single dose of chemotherapy is as effective as radiotherapy for testicular cancer
...follow-up of 3 years, they found that relapse-free survival was similar between the two groups (95.4% for the carboplatin group vs. 96.6% for radiation therapy). At 5 years they also found that patients receiving carboplatin were less likely to develop tumours in their remaining testicle. Professor Oliver sta...Statin therapy may lower mortality in heart failure patients
.... Cholesterol-lowering statin therapy may improve survival in patients with diastolic heart failure (DHF) acc...urrently, there are no treatments shown to improve survival in these patients, who make up about 40 percent of all heart failure cases. Systolic heart failure p...Armed forces search for ways to improve survival in the combat zone
...etermine which held the most promise for improving survival from combat blood-loss and achieving sound scientific advances. This phase was designed to assist the military in determining which emerging products were worthy of further review and potential future funding. Of the 59 pre-proposals, 49 were in the...Hospital experience and nursing improve cancer surgery outcome
...der a moderate-risk surgery. Studies show a clear survival benefit for patients who have high-risk cancer surgeries at hospitals that commonly perform the procedures. However, most cancer-related surgeries are moderate risk. In this category, studies analyzing the benefit of choosing a high procedure volume ...Clinical factors can help determine risk of prostate cancer death after radical prostatectomy
...d to estimate the risk of prostate cancer-specific survival at year 15 after biochemical recurrence. Patients with a PSADT less than 3 months had a median survival of 6 years. Patients with a PSADT less than 3 months, biochemical recurrence 3 years or less after ...Hopkins researchers identify risk factors for prediction of lethal prostate cancer after recurrence
... less then three months (23 patients) had a median survival of six years. Patients with a PSA doubling time o...on score of eight to 10 (15 patients) had a median survival of three years. However, patients with a PSA doubling time of 15 months or more and a biochemical r...Delirium associated with premature death
...zation one year later had 13 percent fewer days of survival during the following year when compared to patients without delirium, according to a study published this month in the Archives of Internal Medicine . Delirium is a frequent problem for hospitalized older patients with consequences ranging from inc...Major NH&MRC grant will fund multidisciplinary research to improve the treatment of neuroblastoma
...hers and their teams are determined to improve the survival rates for children with this disease through the development of new, safer treatments and possibly even prevent the disease in future. In mid-July the NH&MRC announced a $4.7 million grant was being awarded to a team comprising Prof Michelle Haber, H...Cancer quest boosted by renewal
...herapies. For cancers of the blood, the five-year survival rate has more than tripled over the past forty yea...rtainly a death sentence. Yet today, the five-year survival rate for children is beyond 70%. Outlining the Centre's research, Professor Adams says, "Our bodies...Black people more likely to survive a stroke than white people
...ent of existing health problems were collected and survival was calculated. Despite an increased risk of strok...ve than white patients. The results showed a clear survival advantage, with five year survival being 57% for black people and 36% for white people. This trend r...Few benefits, many costs associated with changing definition of 'abnormal' PSA level
... of PSA screening in terms of cancer mortality and survival rates, so setting a PSA threshold to maximize the number of potential cases detected may not translate into saving lives. "The problem is that although it is easy to diagnose more prostate cancer, it is not easy to know who has clinically important d...Largest study of unrelated bone marrow transplantation for leukemia serves as benchmark
...d survival. While the trial demonstrated similar survival rates, the study was the most comprehensive to dat... be better than the other in terms of disease-free survival three years after transplantation, the study also systematically compared the incidence of various c...Revised classification system is effective for predicting breast cancer outcome in some patients
... of cancer is effective for predicting relapse and survival in women with breast cancer who receive chemothera...strongly associated with both distant disease-free survival and overall survival, the report said. A higher stage of residual tumor after neoadjuvant chemothera...Many choose more aggressive breast cancer surgery despite breast-sparing option
...urgery that removes the entire breast, even though survival rates are the same for surgery that removes only t...e caught early and treated effectively, so overall survival rates are the same for either type of surgery. The study authors suggest that's a detail the average......documented LVSD. Drugs with a documented impact on survival were given less frequently to these women. Similarly, women admitted with an acute myocardial infarction were less likely treated with reperfusion therapy as compared to men (60% vs. 69%). But, no gender differences were observed with respect to the ...